From Paper to People’s Podcast: Episode 308 – Brian Sheffey & Changes at AncestryDNA

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by my 3x cousin, Carolynn Ní Lochlainn. We’re connected through Cecily Reynolds (1601-1677) who married Thomas Bailey, Capt. Samuel Jordan, William Farrar, Sr, and Peter Montague II.

We spend a little time talking about my books: Practical Genealogy and The Family Tree Workbook.

We also spend a significant amount of time discussing how Ancestry’s planned removal of DNA matches under 10cMs will negatively affect four distinct ancestral groups in my ancestry:

1. Colonial-era enslaved ancestors: finding their ancestors and re-joining family branches lost when enslaved families were broken apart;

2. Identifying the European-descended men who were the fathers of the children bourne by female ancestors who were free women of color;

3. Breaking through the brick walls for poorly documented European-descended ancestors who were early settlers in wilderness areas in the early colonial period; and

4. Genetic genealogy work involving my Jewish great-grandfather’s family.

All of these – and some more scenarios – will all be negatively impacted by Ancestry’s proposed matching alterations.

You can catch the interview by surfing over to:

PODCAST Episode 308: Interview with Brian Sheffey about AncestryDNA

Books by Brian Sheffey